"It
is often interesting to imagine the initial meeting that
took place between Oberlin officials and Steinway &
Sons over 122 years ago.
Thanks to Oberlin's foresight, fostered by a strong belief
that the best deserve the best, this working partnership
was established. Steinway & Sons looks forward to
turning another century with our good friends at Oberlin."

--Sally
Coveleskie, director of institutional sales, Steinway &
Sons

WHEN
SEVERAL OBERLIN PIANO FACULTY MEMBERS JOURNEYED LAST spring
to the Steinway & Sons factory in Long Island City,
New York, to see firsthand how the premier pianos are made,
the visit marked yet another connection in a 122-year relationship.
When the faculty, on that same visit, tested and purchased
a new model D concert grand piano for Warner Concert Hall,
the purchase brought the total number of Steinways at Oberlin,
an all-Steinway school, to 196.

"One
of the things that attracts us to Steinway is that, like
Steinway, we are in this for the long haul," says Michael
Lynn, associate dean of technology and facilities at Oberlin.
"We need a solid collection of pianos that we can rely on
and use for a long, long, time. For 122 years Steinway has
provided us with quality instruments. The relationship has
been a successful formula. Also, the characteristics of
the New York Steinway grand pianos have been a part of our
institution for a long time and people are comfortable with
that sound."

"According
to our records," says Sally Coveleskie, director of institutional
sales at Steinway & Sons, "the Oberlin College Conservatory
has been an all-Steinway School since 1877. This is the
longest relationship we have with any all-Steinway school,
anywhere in the world, since our own company was founded
in 1853."

QUALITY.
DURABILITY. TRADITION. The Steinway Sound. These words surface
again and again when discussing the a Steinway piano. What
is the Steinway sound?

"It
is the 'singing' Steinway voice," says Ken Sloane, director
of piano technology at Oberlin. "It sings and projects.
The Steinway people say the tone must 'carry.'" Sloan is
a widely recognized specialist in Steinway piano technology,
having attended yearly training seminars even before he
began his 21-year tenure at Oberlin in 1978.

Sloane
says he has worked with other pianos and that he finds Steinways
more "individualized" than others. "Steinway's manufacturing
procedure (intentional to a degree) provides that the pianos
are not created equally. Steinway contends they've never
made a bad piano -- just different. I find them to be the
most beautiful pianos. Some other pianos are made with exquisite
attention to detail, but none of them have the Steinway
voice."

Sedmara
Rutstein, professor of pianoforte and one of the faculty
members who traveled to the Steinway factory, agrees with
Sloane. "You can see 10 Steinways and every one will sound
differently," she says. "When we visited the Steinway factory,
they showed us only five pianos and we bought one, but all
five sounded totally different."

Rutstein
credits the human touch for the Steinway sound. "It was
very impressive to visit the factory and to see that they
build the pianos by hand," she says. "Even the body of
the piano is made by hand. They take very thin layers
of wood, glue them together, then wrap them around a frame
to build the body. They have sound technicians who complete
thorough work on every detail - the hammers, the keyboard
-- real people examine every part."

The
Paino Tech Team, left to right: Andrew Bertoni, Ken
Sloane and Allen Wright. Photo by John Seyfried.

She
continues, "For my students, it is good to have the Steinway
because the feeling of the keyboard is so good. When they
leave, they will have the high standard of sound quality
in their ear."

"I
feel the Steinway is the most versatile piano," says Sloane.
"It has the most dynamic range of sound that makes it
suitable for all different kinds of music."

Sloane,
who had classical training as a trombonist, says he and
his staff of two other highly skilled piano technicians,
Andrew Bertoni and Allen Wright, spend most of their time
tuning and working with hammers. "If the piano is not
in decline, we work with the tuning, the regulation (adjustment
of moving parts so that they move in a predictable fashion),
and voicing.

"Also
critical to my role at Oberlin is the direction of our
rebuilding program, unique in the musical academic world,"
says Sloane. "We rebuild 15 to 20 pianos a year. Most
of the work is very thorough action rebuilding -- new
felts and hammers and all new stuff in the action. Pianos
in homes die of old age. Here they die of overuse. Some
of our pianos are in use 16 hours a day, even more in
some teachers' studios. Steinways really hold up well
in heavy
use situations. Even so, when we finish rebuilding a piano
in Robertson there is always a feeding frenzy of students
around it."

Lynn
adds, "The students are the true beneficiaries of Oberlin's
long-standing relationship with Steinway. They benefit
because they practice on Steinway grands. Other schools
have decided to buy less expensive pianos for their practice
rooms, but we have fought to keep the Steinways here.
That is something we will not compromise."

Coveleskie,
who meets with colleges and universities throughout the
United States says, "It is often interesting to imagine
the initial meeting that took place between Oberlin officials
and Steinway & Sons over 122 years ago. Thanks to Oberlin's
foresight, fostered by a strong belief that the best deserve
the best, this working partnership was established. Steinway
& Sons looks forward to turning another century with
our good friends at Oberlin."